What Do You Say Next?

It’s the 50themail you’ve sent this year and it’s still January, and you’ve heard about everything that could possibly be said about how to improve performance
through subject line testing. You’ve used about every word combination, icons, and symbols to get attention. You’ve tried humor, trended terms and personalization. You’ve tried
personalizing the subject line so much, “Hi [firstname]” even in personal email conjures up lead-generation images.

Some companies like persistence and the
fundamental principles of publishing and keep the subject line the same or similar each time, expecting the brand to carry the title. For functional messages, this makes sense (for
example, “Statement Enclosed”). Still, pretty much all the email platforms support some form of subject line testing -- and in a game won on increments, this is the right
approach. Is this an art, where success is how you infuse creative interpretation into cause/effect process? Is this a science, where you algorithmically optimize terms by times and
frequency, very similar to SEM? Do you have a portfolio of key words that are used for certain type of promotions segments and specific timing factors, and manage it through that
process?

I’m a believer that subject lines should be managed like a portfolio of keywords. The real challenge is to find which segments respond to which subject lines. Still,
testing infinite versions by segment, timing and intent is a matrix few of us want/can manage ourselves.

The keys to good subject line practices are:

Keep it
fresh. Even though you send 100 campaigns+ a year, think of the subject line as a newspaper thinks of its front page. You are only as good as your last headline. You should
have a standard set of baseline words and phrases to use, and you build around that. With the frequency we have with email, you can’t realistically expect to be full of cool sound
bites every time out, but you should try! Remember, a subject line is typically a three- to 10-word phrase that is meant to 1) get attention; (2) provide notice of relevance; and (3) drive
action.

Think algorithmically. It’s all about the numbers. You should have a pattern indexed each year to know what performed, when and why.
This will make the production process less of a guess and “touchy/feely” creative decision in the last throes of a campaign.

Search works. Few companies
actually know what words and terms their companies have paid to own. For example, Nike = shoes (and every deviation of shoe term there is). Some terms are pretty meaningless for your
purposes, but remember that your brand has a connection. What is that connection to? And how do you use that and macro trends to connect email to something they will remember when they have
intent to purchase. Search is about persistence, and email marketers should have similar discipline.

Have fun with it. Be creative, but not over the top.
There is a fine line between being trendy and creative and being out of brand. Think of it similar to jokes in the workplace. There are funny ones and there are inappropriate ones.
Depends on your work environment what that threshold is. Just remember, not everyone has your sense of humor.

Your competitor’s tactics really mean nothing to
you. We have much more visibility into our competitor’s practices these days, but trying to make sense of their strategy and reacting to it is a bit of a wasted effort, I
think. Matching promotion strategy is key, but subject line matching is synonymous to trying to optimize a comedian. Just doesn’t get the result you want.

As I
suggested at the beginning, this is a game of increments and one thing won’t change your wholesale outcomes. Think faster, think more programmatically, and pay attention to what’s
happening in the world. The day you find yourself in a marketing vacuum is the day you lose the customer.

Online retailers can include a personalized/dynamic content to the subject line. Content such as product names, brands and categories the customer is interested in. We've seen that it can increase the open rate by 10% to 50%.

Also Abby is right, we also see how personalized/dynamic content boosts open rate. It's not just the subject line - the first line of content is nearly important now that mail clients such as GMail display this in the inbox. Also real-time is vital, because you want to personalize with data that's relevant to the customer's *next* buying decision.

Thanks for the great tips. I've been doing much research on subject lines, email deliverability, and effective email content. I'm going to start testing a few different subject lines in hopes to increase response rate and clicks. This webinar may be of some interest to anyone trying to improve their email campaigns.